Thursday, October 27, 2016

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-hate-groups-neo-nazi-white-supremacist-racism
"Extremists made him their chosen candidate and now hail him as "Emperor Trump" because he has amplified their message on social media—and, perhaps most importantly, has gone to great lengths to avoid distancing himself from the racist right. With the exception of Duke, Trump has not disavowed a single endorsement from the dozens of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, and militia supporters who have backed him. The GOP nominee, along with his family members, staffers, and surrogates, has instead provided an unprecedented platform for the ideas and rhetoric of far-right extremists, extending their reach. And when challenged on it by the press, Trump has stalled, feigned ignorance, or deflected—but has never specifically rejected any of these other extremists or their ideas. This stance has thrilled and emboldened hate groups far more than has been generally understood during the 2016 race for the White House. Moreover, Trump's tacit welcoming of these hate groups into mainstream American politics will have long-lasting consequences, according to these groups' own leaders, regardless of the election outcome."

"Conservative and liberal economists are saying that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s economic plan for U.S. growth is a “ridiculous” fraud that bears no resemblance to real economic proposals."

"Basically, Trump wants a trial where nothing he’s ever said or done can be used against him in a lawsuit aimed at exposing him for being a corrupt, unethical crook who defrauded innocent people out of tens of thousands of dollars. Perhaps the only thing more delusional than Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is this list."

https://thinkprogress.org/north-carolina-counties-that-slashed-early-voting-sites-see-hours-long-lines-fcffa0151748#.z0c6zbni8
"The court struck down the vast majority of North Carolina’s election changes, calling them an attempt to suppress voters of color “with surgical precision.” But one piece allowed to stand was the elimination of straight-ticket voting — the option for a voter to check a single box in order to vote for a party’s candidates up and down the ballot. A study by the non-profit voting rights group Democracy North Carolina found that 2.5 million voters used straight-ticket voting in 2012. Since it takes much longer to vote for each candidate individually, the organization fears this could slow down the already long wait times at the polls."

"And, of course, there’s all of the standing assault allegations against Trump, but in terms of sexism in Trump’s political platform, there’s his gender role-enforcing, heteronormative maternity leave plan; his opposition to reproductive rights, essentially reducing women to baby-making machines; and his backwards appraisal of the wage gap. Unrelated to politics, he’s also on the record suggesting husbands should keep their wives from working and that pregnant women are workforce inconveniences, but alas, I digress."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/colorblind-justice-john-roberts-voting-rights-north-carolina
"In 2013, when Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. issued the most far-reaching Supreme Court decision on voting rights in the 21st century, he finally succeeded in gutting a civil rights law he has been fighting his entire career. For three decades, Roberts has argued that the United States has become colorblind to the point where aggressive federal intervention on behalf of voters of color is no longer necessary—and this case, Shelby County v. Holder, was the pinnacle of that crusade. Roberts honed his views on race and voting as a clerk for Justice William Rehnquist, a man who as a court clerk himself had written a memo endorsing Plessy v. Ferguson, the "separate but equal" doctrine upholding segregated schools. On the high court, Rehnquist helped redefine opposition to civil rights laws as a commitment to color blindness, and he used this theory to undermine the 1965 Voting Rights Act."

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

"A consultant for a Donald Trump super PAC admits in newly revealed video footage that brazenly deceptive ads targeting black voters are part of a “voter suppression” campaign. Jesse Benton, who described himself as a consultant to the Great America PAC, spoke to undercover reporters from The Telegraph, where he revealed the scheme — along with the political group’s willingness to accept Chinese funding to help elect Trump. Foreign nationals are prohibited by law from donating to U.S. federal elections."

"So John McCain, in his 28th year in the Senate, is promising an even more extreme version of the nihilistic politics practiced by congressional Republicans since Barack Obama took the oath of office."

"Gingrich lost it on air, shouting at Kelly, “I’m sick and tired of people like you using language that’s inflammatory that’s not true!” This has been the response from many Trump supporters on the right who also claim that calling out his misogyny is playing the “woman card"."

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-fiduciary-duty-dred-scott-769442c5819#.12ikoxmvb
"Until recently, financial advisers who helped clients decide where to invest their retirement money were legally able to steer them toward products that made themselves money at their clients’ expense. That should soon change, thanks to a new rule from the Department of Labor finalized in April that will require these brokers to adhere to a fiduciary standard and to always put clients’ interests ahead of their own. But an economic adviser to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is already promising to roll that rule back."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/20/1584870/-Donald-Trump-s-deflated-defeated-low-stamina-body-language-after-the-debate-says-it-all
"Donald Trump might be sending out 3 AM tweets claiming debate victory and citing bogus internet polls, but let’s take a moment to look back at the Republican nominee’s own body language in the immediate moments after the debate. While Hillary Clinton warmly greeted people in the audience, flashing a wide smile and confidently moving around the crowd in her stunning suffragette-white pantsuit, Donald Trump was sulking on the stage, appearing to have completely run out of stamina. His own body language is a dead giveaway that he knows he lost—and lost bigly."

"what’s been so remarkable about this is that Trump’s the only candidate who seems completely impervious to being fact checked. He’ll lie, have someone present facts that disprove his lie, and just keep on insisting that his lie is still true while belittling anybody who says otherwise. What allows him to get away with this is the fact that he’s supported by people who really couldn’t care less about facts and only believe whatever drivel comes out of his mouth."

"With those four words, Donald Trump confirmed for every thinking woman in America that all of his talk that “nobody respects women more than I do,” is as worthless as the bankrupt companies that litter his past."

"Late Show host Stephen Colbert was right on top of Tuesday’s Presidential Debate and laid into GOP nominee Donald Trump for refusing to state that he would gracefully concede should he lose November 8."

"While he is likely to have stopped some of that bleeding among core supporters and far right-wingers—by sticking by his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border, by saying he would appoint anti-abortion federal judges, by saying he would cut taxes for the wealthy and businesses—there was little in Trump’s performance that would attract new or undecided voters that Americans have not seen before."

"This must gall Donald Trump so, so much. He has built his entire persona on being the biggest bully on the playground. Yet the worse the outlook for his campaign becomes, the smaller he looks, the more his bluster is revealed as cheap and empty, as shimmery a mirage as his purported net worth."

"McCain has been in the Senate for 30 years. He is more than aware of both the written and unwritten norms that allow the chamber to function. Or allowed it to function, back before Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008. He knows especially that there is long-standing precedent for the Senate to allow a president leeway in staffing his or her administration by confirming all but the most objectionable nominees to Cabinet posts or other high-ranking positions. He knows that there is precedent for confirming judges to various levels of the judiciary, even the Supreme Court, even (sometimes) when those judges are ideological extremists. Yet McCain still spent the last eight years gleefully participating in Republican efforts to block each and every legislative initiative or executive and judicial appointment by President Obama. He is now promising to do the same for the next president."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/john-mccain-hillary-clinton-supreme-court_us_58050653e4b0162c043d4c9a
"The main pretext Republican senators have offered for leaving open the Supreme Court seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia is that the next president, not Barack Obama, should be the one to fill it. But now that his party’s nominee, Donald Trump, seems headed for a loss in November, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) appears to be changing his tune ― and may be signaling that more unprecedented obstruction is on the horizon if Hillary Clinton wins the White House. “I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up. I promise you,” McCain said Monday, according to CNN."

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/10/17/13306590/trump-voter-fraud-skittles-debunked
"Voter fraud is exceedingly rare. Loyola Law School’s Justin Levitt did a deep dive into every credible allegation of voter fraud from 2000 to 2014. This includes general, primary, special, and municipal elections. He told Vox’s German Lopez that he only found 35 cases, even though 834 million ballots were cast in national general elections, and hundreds of millions more in primary, special, and municipal elections, among others. Since Trump’s son, Donald Jr., already provided a good metaphor for putting things into perspective — albeit incorrectly — we’re just going to borrow it. It’s like Donald Trump bought a massive bag of Skittles with 834 million pieces in it, and he’s complaining that it’s not a legitimate bag of Skittles because there are so many M&Ms mixed in. Except we only have evidence that there are 35 M&Ms in the Skittles bag. This is what we’re dealing with here"

"He preens about successes he obtained only by destroying the wealth, careers and reputations of other people. He takes credit for the victories of others and denies any blame for his many failures. In his impulsive pursuit of self-aggrandizement, his victims are legion. And now he vows to do to America what he did to them."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-hate-groups-neo-nazi-white-supremacist-racism
"Trump did not become the object of white nationalist affection simply because his positions reflect their core concerns. Extremists made him their chosen candidate and now hail him as "Emperor Trump" because he has amplified their message on social media—and, perhaps most importantly, has gone to great lengths to avoid distancing himself from the racist right. With the exception of Duke, Trump has not disavowed a single endorsement from the dozens of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, and militia supporters who have backed him. The GOP nominee, along with his family members, staffers, and surrogates, has instead provided an unprecedented platform for the ideas and rhetoric of far-right extremists, extending their reach. And when challenged on it by the press, Trump has stalled, feigned ignorance, or deflected—but has never specifically rejected any of these other extremists or their ideas. This stance has thrilled and emboldened hate groups far more than has been generally understood during the 2016 race for the White House. Moreover, Trump's tacit welcoming of these hate groups into mainstream American politics will have long-lasting consequences, according to these groups' own leaders, regardless of the election outcome. "The success of the Trump campaign just proves that our views resonate with millions," Pendergraft told us. "They may not be ready for the Ku Klux Klan yet, but as anti-white hatred escalates, they will"."

"The Republic is Arizona’s largest newspaper and has never previously endorsed a Democrat for president. The editorial board joined other conservative newspapers that ultimately declined to fall in behind the Republican Party’s nominee."

"Lies don’t generally work over the long term. Sometimes they seem to, setting up a belief that the lie is a useful strategy. The “Southern strategy,” the Republican Party’s 50-year campaign of appealing to racial bias, provides a good example. While claiming their success based on the Southern strategy was due instead to their economic policies, conservatives created a belief within the party that the lie can be an effective and sustaining weapon of political battle."

"We're watching a presidential candidate who's essentially a mix of alt-right conspiracy sites like Breitbart, Drudge and InfoWars. Donald Trump is a candidate who's going out and telling voters he and he alone can solve all their problems - which is basically the go-to line for every leader of any cult."

"As Donald Trump amps up his hostility toward the press by whipping rally crowds into a frenzy of resentment against reporters and major news outlets, journalists are growing increasingly concerned about their safety and advocates are warning of the consequences. The Committee to Protect Journalists says a Trump presidency would create an "unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ's ability to advocate for press freedom around the world"."

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/12/13265206/trump-accusations-sexual-assault
"Donald Trump wanted everyone to believe that he was just boasting when he talked in a leaked recording from 2005 about the way he treated women: “Just kiss, I don't even wait … Grab 'em by the p*ssy … When you're a star, they let you do anything.” But when Anderson Cooper pressed him on it during the second presidential debate, he said he’d never followed through: “Nobody has more respect for women than I do,” Trump said. And when Cooper asked, “Have you ever done those things?” Trump answered, “No, I have not.” Yet a growing number of women are coming forward to say he did."

"While the cold open of "Saturday Night Live" was hilarious this week, its scenarios didn't land too far away from a condensed version of the real second "and worst-ever presidential debate" it parodied."

"Lies don’t generally work over the long term. Sometimes they seem to, setting up a belief that the lie is a useful strategy. The “Southern strategy,” the Republican Party’s 50-year campaign of appealing to racial bias, provides a good example. While claiming their success based on the Southern strategy was due instead to their economic policies, conservatives created a belief within the party that the lie can be an effective and sustaining weapon of political battle."

"Donald Trump not only lies vociferously, but he also relies on America's great myths, a vast storehouse of inaccuracies; longstanding, disproven tales; power-protecting falsehoods that are cultural staples about women and sexual contact--what economist Paul Krugman calls the "zombie ideas," dead ideas that won't die. But Trump's lies are not tall tales or entertaining fantasies; they are designed to land in the dead zones of American belief. Like fish kills and algae blooms, their existence is evidence of waste and irreparable damage; of greed, ego, and entitlement gone awry. Trump's myths are mainly put forward by surrogates."

"As Donald Trump amps up his hostility toward the press by whipping rally crowds into a frenzy of resentment against reporters and major news outlets, journalists are growing increasingly concerned about their safety and advocates are warning of the consequences. The Committee to Protect Journalists says a Trump presidency would create an "unprecedented threat to the rights of journalists and to CPJ's ability to advocate for press freedom around the world"."

"Trump manufactures virtually all his signature products, from suits to shirts, sweaters, belts, ties, tie pins, tie clips, and dozens of others, overseas. Not by American workers in America. Trump could have created American jobs. But he chose not to."

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a49625/obama-fixing-republican-party/
"The president ran down all the symptoms of the prion disease that has been afflicting the Republican Party—and the conservative movement that is its life force—ever since the party ate all the monkeybrains in 1980. The candidates. The advisers. The talk-radio goons and the direct-mail charlatans. The slogans that pass for policies and the policies that make no sense to anyone who actually lives an actual life in the actual United States of America in the actual year of 2016. And the idiots in The Base who swallow it all whole until they can't express their economic insecurity in any other way except with a TRUMP THAT B*TCH T-shirt. The president presented an obvious and undeniable diagnosis. He framed El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago as not an aberration of the conservative mind, but as its inevitable culmination."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-hate-groups-neo-nazi-white-supremacist-racism
"Trump did not become the object of white nationalist affection simply because his positions reflect their core concerns. Extremists made him their chosen candidate and now hail him as "Emperor Trump" because he has amplified their message on social media—and, perhaps most importantly, has gone to great lengths to avoid distancing himself from the racist right. With the exception of Duke, Trump has not disavowed a single endorsement from the dozens of neo-Nazis, Klansmen, white nationalists, and militia supporters who have backed him. The GOP nominee, along with his family members, staffers, and surrogates, has instead provided an unprecedented platform for the ideas and rhetoric of far-right extremists, extending their reach. And when challenged on it by the press, Trump has stalled, feigned ignorance, or deflected—but has never specifically rejected any of these other extremists or their ideas. This stance has thrilled and emboldened hate groups far more than has been generally understood during the 2016 race for the White House. Moreover, Trump's tacit welcoming of these hate groups into mainstream American politics will have long-lasting consequences, according to these groups' own leaders, regardless of the election outcome. "The success of the Trump campaign just proves that our views resonate with millions," Pendergraft told us. "They may not be ready for the Ku Klux Klan yet, but as anti-white hatred escalates, they will"."

http://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/10/12/publications-broke-tradition-endorse-clinton-because-trump-unfit-and-dangerous/213784
"Weeks after a string of newspapers, including the The Arizona Republic, The Cincinnati Enquirer, and The Dallas Morning News, made historic endorsements of Clinton -- marking the first time some ever went with a Democrat -- several more publications released surprising recommendations urging readers to support Clinton. Those include The San Diego Union-Tribune, which endorsed Clinton on October 1 -- the first time in its 148-year history it has supported a Democrat -- while The Columbus Dispatch and Foreign Policy magazine joined the effort this past weekend."

http://www.vox.com/world/2016/10/14/13288138/donald-trump-anti-semite-israel-david-duke-racism-misogny-clinton
"It’s no secret that Trump has long drawn the support of many from the American far right, including its fetid racist and anti-Semitic constituencies. The Daily Stormer, America’s most popular neo-Nazi website, endorsed him less than two weeks after he launched his candidacy. In a prescient article in August 2015, the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos detailed Trump’s support among white nationalists, who were drawn to his derisive comments about Mexicans and his threats to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. Some of those supporters have lashed out at journalists writing critically about Trump with explicitly anti-Semitic language and imagery, something Trump and his family have been slow to condemn. When journalist Julia Ioffe profiled Melania Trump, she was hit with a barrage of hate that included an anonymous caller playing a Hitler speech while others took to Twitter to post doctored photos with her face superimposed onto a picture of a prisoner at Auschwitz. The Daily Stormer called her a “filthy Russian k*ke.” The language was vile and frightening. Melania Trump’s response? Ioffe, she said, had “provoked” it. Melania Trump’s wink-nod response to openly anti-Semitic remarks has been the rule, not the exception. When Duke publicly endorsed Trump in February, the mogul’s initial response was to falsely claim that he didn’t know who Duke was. That was a lie; Trump had denounced Duke as far back as 1991 and in 2000 described him as “a bigot, a racist, a problem.” It took Trump weeks to grudgingly disavow Duke’s support and condemn white supremacy more broadly. That hasn’t stopped Trump and his family from continuing to use language and imagery that carry anti-Semitic undertones or from retweeting comments from supporters with Twitter handles like @WhiteGenocideTM."

http://addictinginfo.org/2016/10/05/atlantics-endorsement-slams-trump-indicts-him-as-one-of-the-most-dangerous-candidates-ever/
"They said, in part: Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read. This judgment is not limited to the editors of The Atlantic. A large number—in fact, a number unparalleled since Goldwater’s 1964 campaign—of prominent policy makers and officeholders from the candidate’s own party have publicly renounced him. Trump disqualified himself from public service long before he declared his presidential candidacy. In one of the more sordid episodes in modern American politics, Trump made himself the face of the so-called birther movement, which had as its immediate goal the demonization of the country’s first African American president. Trump’s larger goal, it seemed, was to stoke fear among white Americans of dark-skinned foreigners. He succeeded wildly in this; the fear he has aroused has brought him one step away from the presidency."

http://billmoyers.com/story/donald-trump-cant-figure-afl-cio-members-arent-showing-rallies/
"This year’s GOP platform: Dismisses the federal minimum wage, declaring that decisions about base hourly wages “should be handled at the state and local level” — where Republican governors and legislators openly question the value of the minimum wage itself. Endorses anti-union “right-to-work” laws enacted by Republican governors such as Wisconsin’s Walker and calls for taking the anti-union crusade national with a proposal “for a national law” along “right-to-work” lines. Attacks the use of the Fair Labor Standard Act to protect workers. Rips the use of Project Labor Agreements to raise wages and improve working conditions. Proposes to gut the 85-year-old Davis-Bacon Act, which guarantees “prevailing wage” pay for workers on federal projects."

Friday, October 14, 2016

"She continued, “I am Deaf. There are millions of Deaf and hard of hearing people like me, in the United States and around the world who face discrimination and misunderstanding like this on a daily basis. It is unacceptable.” “So what’s my response?” she concluded. “It’s not about insults or taking each other down. As a person who is Deaf, as a woman, as a mom, as a wife, as an actor, I have a voice. And I’m using that voice to make myself heard…and vote"."

"Donald Trump supporters have talked about violence if the Republican candidate loses to Hillary Clinton next month. And now, some of them are starting to put their money where their mouths are. A pro-Donald Trump protester has attracted attention for standing alone outside a Virginia Democratic campaign office with his gun. On Thursday, Daniel Parks stood outside a Palmyra campaign office for congressional candidate Jane Dittmar. Witnesses described him as staring directly into the office all day and turning sideways to expose his gun he was legally carrying. He was eventually joined by another protester, who was also armed. The story is part of a larger trend of implied violence being used by Trump supporters."

"Trump’s speech is the paranoid style that has been common to movement conservatism since the 1950s, amplified by the rumor mongering and conspiracy theories that are presented as truth throughout the right-wing news media entertainment echo chamber."

"For further proof of this, look no further than a speech he gave on Thursday where he went on an unhinged, incoherent rant that could have been written by any “new world order/global conspiracy theorist” we all used to mock and make fun of — but have now taken over a good portion of the Republican party."

"Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the Republican presidential nominee, in a 2013 radio interview dismissed sexual harassment as a byproduct of the modern workplace, according to BuzzFeed News. “I’m of that mindset . . . if you can’t handle some of the basic stuff that’s become a problem in the workforce today, then you don’t belong in the workforce,” Trump Jr., a self-described “guy’s guy,” said on “The Opie and Anthony Show” when asked if women ought to be allowed in all-male golf clubs. “Like, you should go maybe teach kindergarten. I think it’s a respectable position"."

"three longtime staffers who worked on the season in which Matlin appeared said that Trump regularly disrespected her and treated her as if she was mentally disabled. This would not be the last time Trump attacked someone with a disability. Early on in the campaign, Trump mocked New York Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski, who suffers from arthrogryposis — which limits the functioning of his joints. At the time, Ann Coulter dismissed Trump’s behavior, saying that he was just being a “standard retard.” According to the Daily Beast’s report, the insults Trump hurled at Matlin occurred both behind her back and right in front of her. But because of a non-disclosure agreement, no one could speak of the comments without facing legal retaliation. “[Trump] would often equate that she was mentally retarded,” one source explained, noting that both Matlin and her interpreter Jack Jason were kind people. During taping, Trump would reportedly write notes sitting at the table in the set’s “boardroom.” Staff who cleaned up after taping noticed that one such scribble read, “Marlee, is she retarded??” Like with “Access Hollywood,” Trump continued wearing his microphone and would talk with others — including Donald Trump Jr. “[Trump] would make fun of her voice. It actually sounded a lot like what he did [to] the New York Times guy,” another person who worked on The Apprentice said, referencing the reporter Trump mocked. Another staffer noted that Trump’s characterization of Matlin’s deafness as a mental deficiency was a regularity."

http://www.vox.com/2016/10/8/13110734/donald-trump-leaked-audio-recording-billy-bush-sexism
"It's all part of a bigger pattern for the Republican nominee, who has been objectifying and dehumanizing women goes back decades. Before the new revelations, he had twice been accused of sexual assault. Trump’s misogyny has been in plain sight for a long time. In public and private, he’s made clear that women matter to him not as people but as sex objects. Even with women whom he supposedly likes and admires, he’s made clear that he values their looks above all else. Before the recording was released Friday, Trump was trying to claim that his most outrageous comments about women’s looks were made for entertainment. They were so over the top that it could be difficult to take them seriously. But a look at Trump’s actions makes clear that he wasn’t joking. He turned his attitudes into discriminatory policies in his offices, at his resorts, and on his TV show, harassing women he found attractive and urging his employees to fire those he did not. This is a different debate about sexism than Americans have had in previous elections. Usually, the critique of Republican candidates has been based on policy — health care access and abortion rights — or on attitudes heavily influenced by religion."

"Citizens United—the unintentially ironic name of the conservative non-profit organization best known for the Supreme Court case that decimated the historical definition of personhood—is basically the worst organization to ever take up arms in the righteous battle against our democracy. But according to a new report, the group is even worse than previously realized."

"This retreat is even deeper into the confines of non-reality than Trump’s previous withdrawal into the Fox News bubble. That was when, beginning late summer, Trump began appearing almost exclusively on Fox News, and then within Fox News, appearing almost exclusively on the show of his most ardent supporter, Sean Hannity, and the friendly confines of Fox & Friends. Trump’s current withdrawal is like having Hannity then hand Trump the keys to a small bunker beneath the Fox News bubble—and trying to run a White House campaign from there. For Trump, the Fox News bubble is a reassuring place where his campaign is always soaring and nobody cares about his tax returns."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/13/1581997/-Look-how-creepy-Trump-sees-women-like-meat-from-the-day-they-are-born
"10 years old In an “Entertainment Tonight” Christmas feature in 1992, Trump looked at a group of young girls and said he would be dating one of them in ten years. At the time, Trump would have been 46 years old [...] In the clip, Trump asks one of the girls if she’s “going up the escalator.” When the girl replies, “yeah,” Trump turns to the camera and says: “I am going to be dating her in 10 years. Can you believe it?” 12 years old “Now, somebody who a lot of people don’t give credit to but in actuality is really beautiful is Paris Hilton,” he said. “I’ve known Paris Hilton from the time she’s 12, her parents are friends of mine, and the first time I saw her she walked into the room and I said, ‘Who the hell is that?’” [...] He then went on to call Hilton “dumb like a fox” and admitted that he had watched her sex tape"."

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a49501/paul-ryan-trump-endorsement-cost/
"He senses, with the animal instinct politicians at his level possess, that even his speakership has been tossed into the hazard. He knows that the rockhead portion of his caucus consider him a backsliding RINO, which is kind compared to what the Trumpaloopas think of him at this point. But instead of doing what any average statesman would do, he continues to take his besieged and delicate conscience out for public walks with the usual gang of sympathetic sycophants."

"Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump leered at a pre-teen girl as she rode up an escalator at Trump Tower. “I am going to be dating her in 10 years, can you believe it?” Trump said to the camera."

"The fact that white nationalists finally feel like they have a candidate who accurately represents their views didn’t cause a mass exodus of GOP leaders, and barely any Republicans mentioned the Central Park Five comments while trying to take the moral high road this weekend. And why would they? Racism in the Republican Party is a feature, not a bug."

"The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for President of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign has said things about women that are so shocking. So demeaning. I simply will not repeat anything here today."

http://thedailybanter.com/2016/10/time-for-gop-to-own-trump/
"The Republican Party's complacency and encouragement has led to this moment. They hitched their wagon to this deplorable horse and now they are trying desperately to get away from him as he runs right off a cliff at full gallop. But they can't. Donald Trump did not occur in a vacuum. He is the result of their failure to govern. He is the result of their divisive rhetoric. He is the result of their Southern Strategy. He is the result of their continued scorched earth attacks on President Obama. He is the result of their welfare queen myth. He is the result of their LGBT hate. He is the result of their bigotry. He is the result of their war on women. No amount of endorsement pulling and distancing themselves from him is going to save their party; the damage is done. Donald Trump is the GOP's just deserts. Now grab a spoon and eat up"

"On a conference call with fellow Republicans on Monday, House Speaker Paul Ryan said that he would stop defending Donald Trump and would instead work on preserving his party’s congressional majority. Not only that, but Ryan also apparently told Republicans that they should do whatever they could to save their seats — even if it meant rescinding their support for Trump’s candidacy."

"What this has led to is a campaign with millions of followers so deeply mired in convoluted conspiracy theories that they have completely lost touch with reality. Most obvious of these, of course, is the birther conspiracy that held that Barack Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen and was therefore an illegitimate president. Trump didn’t publicly indulge in the more sinister of theories which suggested that Obama was some sort of “Manchurian candidate” planted by a foreign power. But it fits so well with his xenophobic worldview that it’s fair to assume it played some part in his obsession with the tall tale. During this campaign Trump has “wondered aloud” whether Sen. Ted Cruz’s father was involved in the JFK assassination, suggested that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death was the result of foul play, said that the president personally intervened to persuade the New York attorney general to investigate Trump University for fraud, insisted that neighbors of the San Bernardino shooters had noticed bombs lying all over their house and didn’t say anything and asserted that climate change is a hoax. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the 9/11 hijackers had girlfriends who were spirited out of the country after the attacks and says that 30 percent of the world’s Muslims are prepared to go to war against he U.S. He claims nobody knows where the Syrian refugees who have been admitted into the country are and claims thousands more are pouring over the southern border illegally. He thinks the Mexican government is “sending” all its criminals to America. Additionally Trump believes that the government somehow prevents people from saying “Merry Christmas” in public and that he’s being targeted by the IRS because he’s a Christian. He says crime is the highest it’s been in 45 years. He is convinced that voter fraud is rampant and that Democrats are routinely stealing elections, including the election of President Obama."

"if someone is a bigot, racist, hates Muslims, is sexist or just an overall vile person who thinks the nation should be led by an egotistical, authoritarian-like dictator who pushes rhetoric taken straight from the “White Nationalist Playbook,” I absolutely get why they would want someone like Trump as president."

"A foreign policy adviser to U.S. Republican candidate Donald Trump has accused Washington of contributing to an atmosphere of mutual contempt with Moscow by disregarding Russia’s interests. Carter Page, a former investment banker whose views on Russia have caused controversy in the past, made the comments in an opinion piece for Russia’s state-controlled Sputnik news agency that was published on Thursday."

"In an interview on Fox Business Channel, former major league pitcher Curt Schilling shocked anchor Trish Regan by refusing to condemn Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s sleazy comments about a 10-year-old girl that he made in 1992. Mediaite reported that the former video game entrepreneur asked Regan, “How many times have you looked at a young man and said ‘Wow, he’s a beautiful young man’ or ‘Wow he’s a gorgeous young man?’ and that man was 12, 13, 14, 15?” “I’ll be honest,” Regan said. “Zero.” “See, now, that’s a lie,” Schilling said. “There’s no way you haven’t seen a young man, somebody else’s son and said, ‘Wow, he’s beautiful.'” “Nope, sorry,” Regan said. “You’re on your own on this one"."

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

"Trump says a lot of things, and he declares them to be the best things, the greatest things, like how he’s going to bring steel back to American cities like Pittsburgh. He’s had countless chances to do this and put his money where his mouth is. Yet he hasn’t. A Newsweek investigation by reporter Kurt Eichenwald revealed last week that in at least two of Trump’s last three projects, he chose to use Chinese steel and aluminum. Not only did Trump use foreign materials, but he also tried to conceal that fact by making the purchases through a series of shell and holding companies. Trump may have used foreign aluminum and steel in the third building as well. Eichenwald hasn’t finished that investigation yet. The man who built his entire campaign around a proposal to erect a wall actually built a “big, beautiful wall” in Chicago at the Trump International Hotel and Tower, which opened in 2009. He constructed the Chicago wall with Chinese aluminum. Imagine all of the American workers who could have been employed forging that metal right here in the United States. To make matters worse, the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Commerce filed documents with the U.S. Court of International Trade accusing the Chinese company that supplied Trump with aluminum of dumping the metal in the American market. Dumping means selling a product at a price below the cost of manufacturing it."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/why-were-living-in-the-age-of-fear-w443554
"Because, according to Glassner, "we are living in the most fearmongering time in human history. And the main reason for this is that there's a lot of power and money available to individuals and organizations who can perpetuate these fears." For mass media, insurance companies, Big Pharma, advocacy groups, lawyers, politicians and so many more, your fear is worth billions."

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/donald-trump-is-americas-enemy-w444092
"The Trump campaign's ties to Russia are more than troubling – they're terrifying. His former campaign chairman made millions working for a Russia-backed autocrat who used to rule Ukraine. His top national security adviser has buddied up to Putin. And Trump has personally pursued business opportunities in Russia for decades. His rhetoric on the campaign trail has been solicitous of Putin and, like his words about Syria in the debate, often parroted the Russian line. These are not coincidences. This is a dangerous pattern."

Monday, October 10, 2016

"It is crystal clear that the Russians are behind this, they are intentionally feeding misinformation to the Republican candidate and are trying to affect the outcome of the election. Who fed Trump this information? Did he have it before Sputnik published it? This news comes after the news earlier today that Trump had received information in a security briefing that clearly indicated the Russians were behind the hack at the DNC, something he lied about in last night's debate. Should he be receiving national security briefings when he's this close to Putin and Russian oligarchs? When the Kremlin is writing his talking points, it may be time to step back and re-evaluate."

"After the Last Week Tonight host brutalized GOP lawmakers who are fleeing Trump after letting him take over their party,he launched the most John Oliver-like John Oliver descriptions of Trump uttered since this too long campaign season began."

"Lauren spends her days working to help feed the poor in impoverished nations through her company FEED Projects, which makes products that engage people in the fight to end world hunger. She began the organization after serving as the World Food Program (WFP) honorary spokesperson. While she’s the granddaughter of George H.W. Bush and the niece of George W. Bush, she has decided to go with Hillary Clinton over her family’s party nominee, Donald Trump, this election."

"William Johnson, chairman of the white nationalist American Freedom Party, and other organized racists who back the Republican presidential nominee see a chance to set White House policy if Trump is elected next month, reported The Guardian. Johnson, who briefly was a Trump delegate from California, and Richard Spencer, director of the National Policy Institute and originator of the term “alt-right,” believe Trump might pack his cabinet with white supremacists."

Sunday, October 9, 2016

"Republican operative and former campaign manager for John McCain's 2008 run Steve Schmidt was on the panel for Meet the Press, and he had no good words for Donald Trump, the Republican Party, or the pathway of this election as it affects Republicans."

http://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-federal-income-tax-records-506713
"The bottom line—no pun intended—is this: Trump is not a self-made man. He is a self-made disaster who only avoided personal bankruptcy thanks to his father being there to clean up his messes. In other words, if Trump really was the businessman he pretends to be—an executive who made it on his own through sheer grit and determination, rather than through his family’s ability to bail him out—today he would not be the Republican nominee for president, but instead just another forgotten footnote in the annals of New York real estate development."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/2/1575193/-Don-t-talk-to-me-about-justice-unless-you-are-voting-to-secure-the-Supreme-Court
"You want change? Change the damn court. That’s how you lock in change. We are a nation of laws and those laws, reinforced by SCOTUS, can decide that corporations are people while people become discorporate (dead) due to a dearth of Justice. Those laws can give us the right to vote—or remove it. The black robed, right-wing denizens of the Roberts Court are carrion crows picking at the flesh of our liberty, and ultimately taking our lives. You care about the environment? Change the court. You care about women’s rights? Change the court. You care about income inequality? Change the court. You care about criminal justice? Change the court. You care about gun violence? Change the court. I may not have included your specific issue or issues here, but you get my drift. Even the Republicans who loathe Donald Trump are rallying to vote for him because they know that SCOTUS is at stake. The Koch Brothers and others are now dumping huge sums of money into Republican Senate races that are vulnerable in order to maintain a stranglehold on progress. The future of generations to come is in your hands. So vote. For Democrats."

"Watch it all and think about November 8th. Don't wear yourself out fretting about the cow-dumb millions who will flock to the polls and vote for a monster because they're just too fcked-in-the-head to do otherwise. They're lost to us and nothing you do will ever bring them back. Instead, meditate on those who know who know better. Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell. Your Uncle Phil. Men and women who god damn well know better and are still willing to go along on this slow, mad march into Hell. Win or lose, these are the people who can never be forgiven for what they are about to do. Never, ever."

"An interesting development is taking place in the Obama presidency. The more Donald Trump attacks his policies, his temperament and his character, the higher president Obama's approval ratings have been climbing."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/republican-leaders-backing-donald-trump_us_57f97538e4b068ecb5df3409
"You knew. You all knew. You knew the whole time who and what Donald Trump is. Mike Pence. Paul Ryan. Mitch McConnell. Ted Cruz. Chris Christie. Newt Gingrich. Orrin Hatch. John McCain. Marco Rubio. Virtually all of you. You heard every terrible thing he said. You watched every inexcusable thing he did. You knew Trump is a race-baiting, xenophobic, misogynistic, authoritarian con man. You knew about his insatiable appetite for power, his bottomless need for affirmation, his dangerous impulsiveness and uncontrollable temper. You knew he was a huckster who ruined businesses and lives. You knew he debased your party, and you personally. You knew. You knew he waged a racist campaign against the president’s legitimacy. You knew he called immigrants rapists. You knew he advocated forbidding Muslims from American soil. You knew he said a federal judge wasn’t qualified because Mexican blood flowed through his veins. You knew he besmirched the parents of a dead soldier. You knew he mocked prisoners of war. You knew he courted white supremacists. You knew he admires dictators. You knew he incited violence. You knew he lies ― blatantly, shamelessly, ceaselessly. You knew all of that, and you asked Americans to elect him president anyway. Shame on you. You knew. Your condemnations are and have always been empty. Your sudden rush to abandon Trump ― after what’s merely the most recently uncovered manifestation of his hatred for women ― is motivated by the same venal cowardice that led you to support him in the first place."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/clinton-trump-newspaper-endorsements
"Faced with the prospect of a Trump presidency, some papers that have endorsed Republicans for decades are painting Hillary Clinton as a qualified and steady leader. As the Dallas Morning News, which last endorsed a Democrat before World War II, wrote in its endorsement of Clinton last month, "Her errors are plainly in a different universe than her opponent's." Some newspapers are also endorsing much earlier than usual, rather than waiting until the final week or two of the campaign. The Chicago Sun-Times, which reversed its 2012 decision to stop making presidential endorsements, explained in its September endorsement of Clinton, "The best way to avert a train wreck is to wave a warning flag as soon as possible"."

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/7/1578927/-With-zero-major-newspaper-endorsements-Donald-Trump-makes-history-again
"As Donald Trump continues to not-prepare for his next debate, his campaign continues to break new ground in sucking. With just a little over a month until election day, Donald Trump has racked up zero major newspaper endorsements, a first for any major party nominee in American history. In American history, we repeat. Donald Trump has achieved something never before thought possible among the country's most prominent newspapers: A nationwide consensus that regardless of party affiliation, one of the two candidates is simply unacceptable. [I]t’s not just the papers but also writers who are taking a stand. Last month, a member of The Wall Street Journal’s traditionally conservative editorial board endorsed Clinton, calling Trump the candidate of “white supremacists and swastika devotees"."

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-case-for-hillary-clinton-and-against-donald-trump/501161/
"Donald J. Trump, who might be the most ostentatiously unqualified major-party candidate in the 227-year history of the American presidency. These concerns compel us, for the third time since the magazine’s founding, to endorse a candidate for president. Hillary Rodham Clinton has more than earned, through her service to the country as first lady, as a senator from New York, and as secretary of state, the right to be taken seriously as a White House contender. She has flaws (some legitimately troubling, some exaggerated by her opponents), but she is among the most prepared candidates ever to seek the presidency. We are confident that she understands the role of the United States in the world; we have no doubt that she will apply herself assiduously to the problems confronting this country; and she has demonstrated an aptitude for analysis and hard work. Donald Trump, on the other hand, has no record of public service and no qualifications for public office. His affect is that of an infomercial huckster; he traffics in conspiracy theories and racist invective; he is appallingly sexist; he is erratic, secretive, and xenophobic; he expresses admiration for authoritarian rulers, and evinces authoritarian tendencies himself. He is easily goaded, a poor quality for someone seeking control of America’s nuclear arsenal. He is an enemy of fact-based discourse; he is ignorant of, and indifferent to, the Constitution; he appears not to read. This judgment is not limited to the editors of The Atlantic. A large number—in fact, a number unparalleled since Goldwater’s 1964 campaign—of prominent policy makers and officeholders from the candidate’s own party have publicly renounced him. Trump disqualified himself from public service long before he declared his presidential candidacy. In one of the more sordid episodes in modern American politics, Trump made himself the face of the so-called birther movement, which had as its immediate goal the demonization of the country’s first African American president."